The so-called Islamic State (IS) group has claimed responsibility for two attacks in southern Syria, including one on government forces that a war monitor described as the first on the Syrian army since the fall of long-time president Bashar al-Assad.
The so-called IS group said in a statement that in one attack, a bomb targeting a “vehicle of the apostate regime” detonated, leaving seven soldiers dead or wounded.
It said the attack occurred “last Thursday,” in the al-Safa area in the southern province of Sweida.
In a separate statement, the group said another bomb attack occurred this week, targeting members of the US-backed Free Syrian Army. It claimed that one fighter was killed and three others wounded in that attack.
Syria’s interim government hasn’t commented on either of these claims and a spokesperson for the Free Syrian Army didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the attack on government forces killed one civilian and wounded three soldiers, describing it as the first such attack to be claimed by the IS group against Syrian forces since the 54-year rule by the al-Assad family ended in December.
The extremist group, which once controlled large parts of Syria and Iraq, is opposed to the new authority in Damascus led by President Ahmad al-Sharaa, who was once the head of al-Qaeda’s Syria branch, which fought battles against it.
Over the past several months, the IS group has claimed responsibility for attacks against the US-backed and Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces in the northeast.
The IS group was defeated in Syria in March 2019 when SDF fighters captured the last sliver of land that the extremists controlled.
Since then, its sleeper cells have carried out deadly attacks, mainly in eastern and northeast Syria.
In January, state media reported that intelligence officials in Syria’s post-al-Assad government thwarted a plan by the group to set off a bomb at a Shiite Muslim shrine south of Damascus.
Al-Sharra met with US President Donald Trump in Saudi Arabia earlier this month, when the American leader said that Washington would work on lifting crippling economic sanctions imposed on Damascus since the days of al-Assad.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement after the meeting that Trump urged al-Sharaa to diplomatically recognise Israel, “tell all foreign terrorists to leave Syria” and help the US stop any resurgence of the IS group.
Parallel to this, earlier this week the European Union lifted most sanctions on Syria but slapped new ones on people and groups it says participated in attacks on civilians during a wave of violence in the coastal region in March.
The EU’s foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas had announced plans to lift the sanctions last week, but warned the move was “conditional” and that sanctions could be resumed if the new government doesn’t keep the peace.
